By now you’ve probably read about the Texas couple who died on the Micronesian island of Fiji recently. I haven’t been able to get this tragedy and family off of my mind; I’m so heartbroken for their 2-year old son. While there are many things swirling in my head and my heart at this time, I wanted to write about why you should visit Fiji, despite this distressing story.

The Fijian People

A woman who was selling some bracelets at our resort said to me, “Are you from here or the US? Because you look like one of us.” Now, she could have just been trying to sell her goods but it didn’t matter. She put into words what I and my husband had been feeling the whole time we were on the island: like we belonged. I have a hard time explaining the level of ease and access we feel when we travel somewhere new and we aren’t the only Black or Brown people. This is why Black travel matters to me and what I want my son to experience (even though he wasn’t on this trip!).

While the population of Fiji is majority Native Fijian, almost 40% of the Fijian population is actually of Indian Asian decent. One friend that we made at our resort told us that each of the 332 islands that make up the country has their own dialect and that they learn Fijian in school. Without this common language, they wouldn’t be able to communicate with one another.

There are Hindu, Muslim, and Christian schools, each painted a different color to let people know what religion their school practices. We thought this was a pretty cool way to retain cultural and religious traditions and a great representation of what it looks like to respect different belief systems.

Lastly, it was so refreshing to be around such friendly faces and attitudes. No matter where we were or how many times we’d already seen or met someone, we were greeted with “Bula!”. Bula simply means “welcome”. The warmth and hospitality is my number one reason why you should visit Fiji.

The Weather in Fiji

We visited the island at the beginning of May. The weather was perfect most days with one day that had about an hour of rain. I’m the type of traveler that doesn’t let rain in an otherwise warm climate stop me. In fact, it allowed for the temperature to cool down a bit; the average temp. while we were there was about 80 degrees Fahrenheit (~26 degree Celsius).

When we left home, it was still uncharacteristically cold so I welcomed that humidity and beautiful sunshine. May is the beginning of winter in that part of the world (Oceania, Australia, and New Zealand) so it was actually the perfect time to visit.

The weather really can make or break a destination when deciding where to go. So let me be the first to tell you that the weather should be a huge factor in why you should visit Fiji! Unless you live in a tropical climate already, this weather will be a welcome change, I’m sure of it.

Travel to Fiji is Easier Than You Think

For us, traveling to Fiji from the West Coast (SFO) was a direct 11-hour flight. This is exactly the amount of time it would have taken us to get to London so we weren’t phased at all. But what if you live on the East Coast or the Midwest?

Long haul can be a real pain in the back, I get it. But what I would recommend is first traveling to the West Coast and spending a day or two. From there, you could travel on to Fiji. We flew Fiji Airways and I wasn’t surprised at all by the service and food served on board – it was fantastic. You can fly other airlines but I highly recommend flying with their national carrier

To be honest, every other airline is better than our domestic travel – why do US carriers suck so bad?

The flight time was more than worth the beautiful beach and time away. I don’t regret the travel days at all and highly recommend making the trek out to Oceania. It is truly a beautiful part of our world. Please don’t let the long travel time give you pause about why you should visit Fiji.

We unregrettably spent our few days on the island right on our resort. The only activity we did was a Kava tasting by the pool. Have you ever been to Fiji? If so, share what exciting things you did there in the comments!